Friday . . .

THE MacBETH REPORT: Garth MacBeth, who keeps an eye on the European scene on our behalf, never rests. The first part of today’s report arrived at 1:37 a.m. . . . D Steve Makway (Kootenay/Tri-City) has been released by KooKoo Kouvola (Finland Mestis). The club said that Makway "did not meet expectations." He had three assists and six penalty minutes in four exhibition games. . . . F K.C. Timmons (Tri-City) signed with Smoke Eaters Geleen (Netherlands). He had eight goals and 12 assists in 70 games with Manchester and Coventry (UK Elite Hockey League) last season. As a side note, Geleen named its team after the Trail Smoke Eaters.
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Two of my favourite nicknames in all of sports belong to the Trail Smoke Eaters and the Kimberley Dynamiters. Those are awesome nicknames.
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Like most, if not all, WHL teams, the Edmonton Oil Kings have more than three players scrapping for the three available 20-year-old spots. The battle in Edmonton has lost one combatant as F J.P. Szaszkiewicz has chosen to attend the U of Alberta and play for the Alberta Golden Bears. . . . The 20-year-olds remaining with the Oil Kings are D Cameron Cepek, F Brenden Dowd, F Brandon Lockerby and F Jeff Lee.
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The Prince George Cougars have signed D Shane Pilling, the 69th selection in the 2008 WHL bantam draft. Pilling, from Lethbridge, had 20 points in 33 games with the bantam AAA Lethbridge Val Matteotti Golden Hawks last season. The 5-foot-8, 145-pound Pilling added six points in five playoff games. He will return home from the Cougars’ camp to play in the midget AAA ranks.
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Can't mention Shane Pilling without wondering if he is related to former Regina Pats head coach Gregg Pilling. But we won't get into Gregg Pilling stories today. Not enough time.
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Drew Wilson, the radio voice of the Prince Albert Raides, drops us a line so that we can let you know that 900 CKBI – “The station that Morley Jaeger built,” Wilson writes – is carrying all Raiders preseason games, starting Sunday night at 6:30 when the despised Saskatoon Blades are at the Art Hauser Centre. . . . You have to love radio stations that make the commitment to follow their teams right from the first puck drop of the exhibition season. . . . Wilson also notes that “We are also launching a weekly Raider-WHL talk show Monday nights at 6 p.m. . . . The Insider's Report.” The new show begins Sept. 15.